Confronted with so many untenably unresolvable circumstances, one has to ask: At what point is a life – or a whole cadre of lives – so lacking in value that it / they should no longer exist or be tolerated … or is that “somebody else’s problem”?
Capital punishment – the taking of lives deemed unworthy of salvage – is debated but still practiced in limited circumstances. Genocide remains a horrendous scourge in the 21st Century https://www.genocidewatch.com/
Racism has historically tagged identifiable “Others” as “throwaways” … unworthy of equal rights — and still casts major shadows all over the globe.
Proponents of “Rugged Individualism” are quick to cast aspersions at struggling compatriots they deem unworthy, as in “they should just pick themselves up by their own bootstraps” … not counting the fact that they very often don’t have any “bootstraps”.
Eskimos unable to care for their aged and infirm would send them out into the hereafter on icebergs.
When life becomes more than one can bear, what then?
When recalcitrant youth, left largely untended by civilization-at-large during their formative years, run afoul of the law, we simply cry, “Lock ‘em up!” Where have WE been? We may not be culpable, personally, but have we no backbone or shoulders and arms to lift someone up?
“He ain’t heavy,
He’s my brother.”
Boy’s Town Motto
With extended life spans in the 21st Century … and with increasing risks faced by environmental dishegience, increasing numbers of people are facing earlier onset and longer-term debilitating disabilities. Unwilling to cast them off as “Throwaways”, their caretakers – generally family members with limited resources – are often extended beyond their capacities to manage the complexities of social services and healthcare needs to be met.
EMPATHY is a noble characteristic, even displayed by numerous animal kingdom species. It’s an attribute that many humans – sadly, not all – hold as inviolable.
“But for the Grace of God, there go I!”
Medical salvage of lives that would heretofore have been lost due to genetic, physical, metabolic or mental abnormalities has enormously expanded the ranks of “compromised” but highly valued individuals.
Note the incomparable value added to civilization by the lives of Helen Keller and Stephen Hawking, each of whom required tremendous supportive care from multiple individuals, organizations, social services and healthcare institutions.
Mental health is an emerging catastrophic chasm to bridge. Suicides that succeed are only the tip of a very large iceberg (see Eskimos), hiding deep-seated contemplations of lives considered not worth living. Massive problems of drug addiction are mere predictable sequelae from mental health dishegience … the inability to COPE with life “as we know it”.
Stronger foundations and institutionalization of “salvage” operations – or better, like making “habilitation” and comprehensive preparation for life standard practice – are needed.
What is more “enlifening” than useful, fully engaged endeavor! All it needs is VISIONING, CONNECTING THE DOTS, and SUPERVISION. This includes EDUCATION and SKILLS BUILDING.
A seamless CONTINUUM of DOTS is helpful. The disconnect of dots across current social services is shameful for an “advanced civilization”. One of my former bosses made the outlandish suggestion that the Markey Cancer Center should foster and help develop a CONTINUITY OF CARE Mission for cancer patients, hoping the state and public health departments would join the initiative. They didn’t in any formal sense. But Markey has gone on to become a Comprehensive Cancer Center (nationally designated so) for the entire region and many “Mission-Oriented” groups and individuals, including public health departments and healthcare providers, have signed on. It’s still “catch-as-catch-can” in many instances, but it’s much improved.
Aren’t we ALL on some sort of “Mission” on this spaceship called EARTH –
To make sure the adventure is maximally sustainable?
Mental health and social dishegience issues are not so easy to rally around, with many holding the intractable position that “failure to thrive is one’s own damned fault”!
How and when do we get to the point of realizing someone’s drowning in the rushing waters of life before throwing them a life preserver?
Neversomuch too soon we might ask: What condition our own life preserver(s) are in?
Finally (sic.), we should consider the virtues and challenges of euthanasia … and what about “Living Will” declarations?
… to be continued …
